Owensboro Innovation Academy is adding another new opportunity to a public high school that’s already breaking the mold. The school is partnering with Brescia University to give students the chance to earn a two-year associates degree while they’re getting their high school diploma.

Students will be able to choose from four tracks at Brescia. Two of the tracks will cover basic college requirements for either an associate of arts or science degree. Owensboro Innovation Academy Director Beth Benjamin says the other two tracks are more specialized.

“One is a health studies degree, which would be their general education degree plus some of those science-specific and health-specific courses that they would need to go on and continue their nursing degree or any other medical degree. And the engineering is the first two years of their pre-engineering degree.”

The second part of the partnership will allow students at Innovation Academy to use the new gym at Brescia, which is just next door to the high school that’s located in the Owensboro Centre for Business and Research.

The Innovation Academy launched in 2015 with a focus on the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and math. The academic style is project-based learning, where students often work in teams on creative projects.